Fun. cool graphics. Very good job!

Love the graphics, looks amazing!

I really loved the intro, with gorgeous visuals and cool audio. The font was hardly readable, so with the movement, it was only slowing it down. The game is actually pretty nice, once again with very good aesthetics. I had to give up at the 5th level, it was too fast for me x)

Controls were indeed straightforward, except for the space bar to restart the level.

Nice entry !

@lestat @rob-n thanx

@rolly thank you for the feedback. I took a few todos from it for post compo version.

Wow, I love the difficulty of the final level! I feel like the difficulty *really* spiked there. In every stage leading up to it I didn't take a single hit; The last one took me multiple tries. The story is cool, and the deep ambient noise fits the art and mood very well! Great work!

I liked the dark mood of your game. Graphics were nice, and gameplay was smooth. Overall, it was a cool game! :v:

Is there any chance for a WebGL build? This game looks great and I would like to play it :)

The aesthetics are really nice. The only thing that could be improved about the graphics, in my opinion, is the enemy's attack effect. At first I didn't even realize I'm not supposed to step into the circles, because they seemed so innocuous and nothing seemed to be happening when I did. Maybe a screen shake/some other polish effect would have been nice when one gets hit.

I love the mood and found the gameplay quite interesting. Almost max grade on everything for me except fo the theme.

I assumed I had to step inside the red circles at first, so it could be a little more obvious.

@smiley The web build didn't work, so it's not included. I used some experimental Unity stuff, and it seems it doesn't run well with wasm. What system are you on?

@kuro oh I see. Maybe I should make an exception and download the file when I'm on another computer. I'm a bit allergic to download .exe-files :)

@shan-hsgames @blobo thank you .)

@indigo there is a mild screenshake and a "hit" effect when you get hit, and I thought that was enough. Well... obviously not :smile: There are already two of you (you and @yorsh) who think it could be more obvious. I thank you for your feedback. I'll try to do something about it about in the post compo version.

also @yorsh thank you very much, I appreciate it.

(it never occured to me that playtests and feedback are an important part of polishing.)

@smiley That would be very nice of you .) It's an Unity build, so you should be ok.

Holy sh*t, that escalated quickly :-) From nice relaxing game to an effin' keyboard-breaking hell :-D Well done!

Very interesting! Well done!

the art style and atmosphere worked really well, personally I found the mix of using 'Q' And 'WSAD' to attack a bit confusing I think I would have preferred either always separate attack keys or always 'WSAD' to attack unless this was intentional to add difficulty

@copito that was an oversight on my part. When I think about it, the solution is right there. You don't use Q if you can use WASD... It's obvious. Oh well... I'll fix it in post-compo. Thx for pointing that out.

The game mood is AWESOME! I aslo liked the difficulty scaling.

A very interesting entry, it felt like a really elaborate boss battle, but I wish you used the same premise of a 3x3 level in more than this one way. At the beginning I didn't understand that you can actually hit the boss more than once because it felt like a turn based thing, once it clicked it was a nice challenge to try and nail it as many times a s possible. Congratulations on making it solo in just two days, it is very polished!

interesting game. loved the style and rhythm-esque games are totally my jam. would advise to use a more legible font

> The gameplay is pretty straightforward, and should be understandable from the in-game “instructions”. Please let me know if it isn’t.

So it kinda isn't; it took me a decent while to understand what was going on (at first I moved *towards* the red crosshairs because I'm dumb) and even longer to realize I can multihit. But once I got a grasp on these two details, I nohitted the whole game.

What else can I say except I don't like QTEs, especially on a keyboard, and yet I enjoyed it. The head attack key should be either a right hand key or all W+A+S+D at once. Sound and graphic design is absolutely flawless and enviable, 6.5/5.

Nice game, and the artwork is really great! I'm interested to see what your loop mechanic would've been.

The presentation/UI/animation is top-notch, good work on that front. The gameplay is pretty intense and fun, although it got really tedious at the final stage, I didn't even knew you can hit multiple times and had to hit the boss one at a time. The atmosphere and art is also great, it sorta depict some kinda sci-fi epic god vs god battle.
All in all, great work on the game.

It's an interesting and challenging game despite the simplicity of the mechanic.
The art and sound play well together. Great job!

I like this interesting battle mechanic, game is very atmosphere, I would want to add there some interesting plot and I'd play it with much more interest
Great job!

The atmosphere/presentation is spot on for 48 hours! I really enjoyed it! Good job!

@flying-basement-studios @bereg @adil @diptoman thank you!

@idan-rooze using 3x3 in more ways is an interesting idea. I'd like to work on this for a while longer, and see where it goes, but I don't want it to drag on, so I'll see if I can add some pick ups, or melee combat, or whatever. And thank you! I really tried (and burned myself out a bit in the process :smile:)

@sverdfisken thank you! I plan on changing the font for the "game text".

@dreamscale I wrote a few lines about it [here](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/another/my-compo-entry-a-post-mortem-ramble). I might implement some of it yet.

@idan-rooze @thecakeconsortium Do you have any suggestions on how to visually emphasize that you can attack more than once? That's why the key icon is popping when you press it, but from your comments and others it's not totally obvious what it means. I was thinking about round zero, where you'd just attack. That'd might make it more obvious for further rounds.

@alaah WASD instead of Q is an excellent idea. I mean, it was right there all along. I just didn't see it. Will be there in next version. Also thank you very much for your kind words.

The sounds, visuals and atmosphere is all really cool. The gameplay idea is simple and fun. Overall a good combo game. Well done.

Great atmosphere and intuitive design, would be nice to have a bit more variance in attacks and enemies so perhaps thats something you can add in the future!

@jk5000 Thank you!

@shortbread That was the plan, but you know... compo... I might be able to expand it eventually. Thank you for your feedback!

The polish in this game is insane! Such good art for a 48h project

It was a lot of fun to play. And i like the looping conecpt :) Well done

@phillserrazina thank you! I went for a simple gameplay from the beginning, and focused only on things I was certain I could do fast.

@rakowu thank you .)

@kuro for implying that you can attack more than once I would do two things:
1) More oomph to the press animation
2) have the button idle animation breath a little bit

I REALLY liked the idea of level 0 as well, great idea. Good luck!

There's a huge amount of polish here for 48 hours: the visuals are very enjoyable, and the ambient sound serves the mood well. The in-game hints made the mechanic easy to grasp, even without textual descriptions. Great entry overall!

First of all, you are absolutely right that you learn what you need from the in-game information. Sometimes it can be nice to lay it all out there, but having to figure things out yourself really works well in this game.
The "menu"/intro-page music and animation made the atmosphere so great that it was difficult to start the game, I wanted to just stay there. Needless to say you made a great first impression! Then it got even better, I love the fact that you included a small story, it set's up the fight really well.

Next let's talk about the gameplay, while it's "simple" it's also very addictive. The difficulty ramps up a good pace and never feels unfair. The game has one of the best looking compo graphics that I have seen, combined with great audio. If the attack sounds where annoying this game would almost be unplayable; but they are not. They are great in-fact. I was certain this was a Jam-game because it's so well rounded.

Great entry!

I really like how a certain "rhythm" start growing with the attack of the enemy then your turn, it's kinda cool ('specially when you have to return to defense mode, and not making too much bad move)
It's bug me a little to see the theme not that present, but the visual and the work done is already impressive and well, the game work ! From start to end and it's fun ! So yeah : it's a success

Mood, graphics, audio is awesome. Slightly repetitive as there's too little variation on the "whole" of the gameplay. But other than that, great!

This was a cool little entry! The base combat loop was pretty same-y, but straightforward and fun to play with. Graphics were pretty good, and the audio fit the mood well. I had a good time with this!

Fun game I really enjoyed playing it, I couldn't really get the theme in it tho, but art style, smooth gameplay, audio design and fonts were awesome :thumbsup:

Awesome, love the animation!

The core gameplay is simple and addictive. Hove fun playing it, as you made a pretty smooth difficulty curve.

Good artstyle, both relaxing & but enough action that you have to invest attention. In the beginning I had no clue what the symbols means and thought initially they are a kind of items to collect - figuring out the truth was a part of the fun playing your entry. I have to add that I liked the soundtrack.

The artstyle is so good, the gameplay is solid and a cool premise. Great entry

@toasteater @eugenik @tricky-fat-cat @layne-stokes Thank you for your kind words .)

@idan-rooze I made the letters "breathe" a bit in post compo. I tried to make the "UI buttons" pop out more, but they overtook the whole scene, so I left it as it was. Thanks for the suggestion. (Also did the zero level)

@simon-rahnasto Your feedback is really heartwarming and it made my day. Thank you very much!

@ribout-horace @arad-hamidsamiee There was a theme-based mechanic I had in mind, but I couldn't get around to it in time. I wanted to make it polished first and foremost. I wrote about it in my ["post mortem"](https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/another/my-compo-entry-a-post-mortem-ramble)
>The game mechanic was supposed to include several rounds of loops of attack sequences with special occurences happening: pick ups appearing, different enemies, different attack types and so on. There would be a pick up that would contain instructions to break out of a loop and advance into the next one. If you pay attention, you can see that the attack patterns repeat ad infinum - a gameplay system that was quite time consuming to implement, but it didn’t get used in the end.

@roikku @lectvs Thank you for your feedback. I tried to make something simple gameplay-wise and polish it, and was going to add more variation (described above) if the 48h of compo time permitted. But of course it didn't :smile:

@oillen Thank you. I'm trying to go for a "no text needed" tutorial, so if you have any suggestions on making things even a little bit clearer, I'd be thankful .)

I really enjoyed this game, good job!

Neat game! Nice visuals and music with a simple gameplay loop. A bit weird that nothing happens if you die, no reset or game over, just sitting there with the boss floating endlessly and seemingly no way to exit but alt-f4'ing. Damaging the boss could possibly be made more consistent as well; if you're expecting the key that you need to press then you can practically destroy that part in a single round, but if you aren't then by the time you react you'll likely only do a hit or two which drastically slows the pace of the game down.

@ellladee thank you!

@apples-mmmmmmmm Press spacebar if you die. It's not explained in the compo version - I added it in the post compo one. Thank you for your feedback .)

Very interesting game. I generally don't appreciate when the difficulty arises from the controls, but when a game leans into it the way this one does, it can work and create a unique experience.

To succeed I had to be careful where I put my eyes when, and the way the the movement keys would switch function when the time came to attack.. it was difficult but it felt like it should be doable. So I kept retrying over and over. Eventually I gave up at the 3-handed other.

If I could wish for one player boon (and I played the compo version only so maybe you did this) it would be a tiny audio cue indicating the state change between when the game is in movement mode vs attack mode. I need a small cue on both seams.

Most of my runs were lost like this: OK dodge 1, return to center, dodge 2 return to center, dodge 3, return, 4, now a conflict between the key to return me to center and the attack arises in my brain, and whoops I didn't get my return movement, now let me press the attack, woops too late I got a movement instead, but because my eyes were over on the attack area I didn't even clearly see it. Now when I do focus back the game state that "should" exist in my mind is different than the game state I see on the screen, and I move to correct that but it's already too late and I start getting hit.

Nothing in the world wrong with that, it's clear that the game wants to overwhelm me with what the right inputs are. But audio cues on that ultra-important state change would power me up. I could also use a "player moved" footstep sound. (EDIT: now seeing that other commenters didn't take a single hit, ha. Each has their own experience I guess!)

The other way I took hits was trying to simplify by not returning to center, but this left me too many 3-moves plus made the muscle memory harder to build up. I enjoyed that the game had this tension about the best way to approach it.

Clearly the game had me thinking through the details of the interactions, which I think is a sign it was pretty successful at engaging me in the gameplay!

Beyond gameplay the art was really nice, the ambient audio was a good baseline for the solid sound effects to sit atop without feeling empty, and I enjoyed the mysterious intro that gave a background context to the fight but left room for imagination. That air of mystery carried over well into the fact that I had to explore a little to learn the game rules at first. I personally enjoy that in small games where that figure-it-out phase adds a bit more to the experience.

Overall a really solid compo entry, nice work.

Super impressive that you managed to make this one all by yourself!

[We had a lot of fun with this one on stream last night.](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/766889390?t=00h48m59s)

What I appreciate about this one was how simple yet challenging it was. I think the simple gameplay really allowed you to polish up the other important bits. The controls were nice and responsive, and the visuals were exceptionally top-notch, especially for a compo game. Very nicely done!

@pkenney Hi, and thanks for an extensive feedback on the gameplay! What you describe is something that I hoped was going to be solved with the "rhytmic aspect" - that the player would get used to the fact there is certain number of defense moves that repeats itself before you get the chance to attack. (It is also the only thing that resembles anything to do with a loop). I guess it doesn't work for everyone though. I separated the defense and attack phase with a little indicator placed on the island in post compo version (you can see it in the last gif in this submission). Also a sound plays when switching combat phases, and there's a pause between attacking and defending (about a second - just long enough for combat phase indicators to switch).

I was trying to make a web build of compo version yesterday, so I went back to the compo version revision, and found it more entertaining when it just sort of flowed and looped without the pause. I personally feel it that the phase and indicator switching has somewhat broken the rhythm of the game. But it also might be a matter of personal taste, or the fact that I played it hundreds of times and got used to it might have something to do with it. Who knows.

Anyway, thank you very much for taking your time to write this extensive feedback I really appreciate it!

@coleslaughter Thank you for playing! It was fun to watch .) Also yes, the spamming of the attack buttons is intentional.)

I just tried the post-jam version and I agree it's lost something in the rhythm that I liked about the original compo version. I also didn't enjoy the change to multi-hit attacks as that created a spammy feeling instead of a rhythm.

I think it maybe has a bug, too. I hit Q during a fight and got into this state: https://imgur.com/bdz479W

From there I could move around, and sometimes the mode would appear to change, but no attacks ever happened on either side and I was soft-locked and had to restart the game.

Regarding my earlier comment about wanting the audio cue: I did get used the certain number of defense moves before attack for each level and fell into the rhythm. It wasn't that part I needed a cue for. I needed it more for knowing what exact millisecond my inputs would start changing their meaning, so that I could better learn and internalize the limits of the margin of error.

The player problem I'm trying to solve is that I had a lot of slight misses (where what I expected to be an attack turned out to be a movement) and I never got a great feeling for it.

@pkenney The multi-hit attacks were also in the compo version. I added it (and subsequently increased the enemy HP) to the end of compo, because I liked the feeling of it, but that might also be a personal preference. Only in the compo version it wasn't that obvious you could do that. I tried to make it obvious with the "pop" effect of the key, but many people didn't figure it out until later in the game / at all.

Yes, the 'Q' thing is a bug, an artifact from the time where I was making the combat/defense indicator, and needed to switch that manually. I'll fix it and reupload the post-compo version later.

I'm continuing the development, and now that the "loop" thing is no longer a priority, I'm currently experimenting with a different gameplay philosophy - one where you attack and evade at the same time. I've got to say I like it a lot more than previous versions. It's more dynamic and feels more fun to me, although it makes the game a lot faster, and thus a lot shorter. It does however solve the problem of missing the rhythm: when you hold down shift you attack, otherwise you defend. I'll see where it goes I guess. I've got [a relatively untainted/new twitter account](https://twitter.com/dizztalgamedev) and I'll be posting the updates there if you're interested.

Also thank you again for your analysis. Your feedback is invaluable!

Fantastic! Polished and unique visuals. Clear, simple yet addictive gameplay! Not many jam games succeed (or even try) to make you feel like a badass but this one does so with flying colours! I managed to beat it first try with only 1 hp on the last round, really great feeling. So for me, the progression in difficulty went perfectly with my increasing understanding and skill with the game.

With your narrative, visuals and audio, a superb mood was set too. Really you did everything incredibly well. Can't think of a single issue.

@jam373 Thank you for your feedback .) Although it didn't have much to do with the theme, I'm glad it turned out this way in the end. I decided to work on all the aspects simultaneously and to do a lot of polishing, so although I had a theme based mechanic in mind it might have had taken some of the "badass" factor from the game. There's only so much you can manage during compo, and I think in this case the 48h limit was a good thing.

Fantastic in all aspects!
I assume the theme comes into play with the narrative, right? Didn't finish the game just yet, but I assume at the end the player is alone again until there is a new "another" one.

This would be impressive for a jam game from a team, but for a compo I'm at a loss for words, man. Thank you for creating this gem!

One of the better games I played this jam!

This game does a really good job of presenting the game mechanics without resorting to walls of text - and also a really good job of building up the atmosphere.

I was about to suggest adding some way of playing with arrow keys rather than just WASD - I ended up having to swap to using my right hand for the very hard final level in order to complete the thing. But then, I'm not sure what you'd use for a Q key, or how you'd present the alternative keyboard controls without complicating things. So it's probably better as is :P

Lovely idea, and graphics. One of the best entries I tested so far.
Quite simple, but challenging, and well balanced.
GG for this entry.
Cheers

The graphics are impressive and the sounds are great, complete the atmosphere of the game. It’s a solid and highly polished work. Unfortunately, the game is a little too difficult for me, but I admire what you did here in such a short time. Great Job!

The level of polish here is awesome for 48 hours. Fantastic work!

Very nice game!
I don't exactly understand the story, but it's fine. The gameplay fits the theme in the "stuck" aspect.
The gameplay is challenging and fun, but I'd like to see more things you can do in the game.
The graphic looks very good. The music sounds great.
Overall, that's a very good game.

Good luck!